Deadly Grace
by Fire at Darkness
Summary: Katsa is Katniss' sister. She always knew she was different with her two different coloured eyes, now she is put to the test as she finds out that there is always more to the story, and just how to prove that she is more than just a piece in their Games. Hunger Games/Graceling, don't own either, first fanfic, co-written by piper2323
1. A Remarkable Memory

My first memories are of my mother reading stories of faraway lands to me before bed. Who knows where she got them from or how she got away with having them. I realize now, because surely if the Capitol found out that we had information of places other than Panem, there would have been consequences. Even if was all fiction. Now I'm not so sure. Perhaps they found out eventually. And that is the reason that we are all here now.

The stories come back to me now, vividly, I remember every word my mother read before my other sisters were born. The stories were of people similar to my mother and I, people with dual coloured eyes. They told of seven kingdoms each ruled by kings and queens, where their servants were gifted with archery, healing, singing, cooking, normal skills. Then there was the rest of their servants who their gifts were to never miss a shot, be able to tell what you would like to eat by smelling you, who could climb trees like a squirrel, the list goes on. Those with the special talents were forced to work for their king, they were feared and scorned for having ugly different eyes, they were the Gracelings.

When I was younger my father never understood why my mother told me those stories. He thought she told them to scare me, or that's what I heard from their arguments. They rarely argued, except when they were talking about the stories or my mother's heritage. She doesn't have dark hair and grey eyes like the rest of our district, her eyes are two slightly different shades of blue so no one ever notices but me. Her hair is a light blonde colour that stands out every time we go into town, she is also a lot more jumpy than the rest of us, unless we say something that reflects badly on the Capitol.

This was all before my other two sisters were born, Katniss and Prim. Now my mother has somewhat pulled herself together, but for a long time she was lost to us when our father was caught in a mining explosion five years ago. Katniss still wakes up screaming at the top of her lungs for him to run. Mom had left us for months to fend for ourselves, getting our own food, leaving on time for school and not looking like we needed help from the Social Services. Both Prim and I were happy when our mother snapped out of depression and decided to be a part of our lives again. Katniss, on the other hand, never treated Mom the same.

Right before he died our father started teaching Katniss and I how to hunt. Katniss was starting to get really good with a miniature bow and arrows he had made for her. I didn't envy her, I was a pretty good shot myself, but I was always better than her at the survival part of hunting. Where she had to shoot the animal, I could wrestle or chase it down and kill it, the edible plants were fairly easy for her to memorize but I felt as though I was relearning almost everything he taught. He only taught us to kill animals, but at the same time in the town I was also learning the softest easiest spots to hit and kill a man.

After his death, Mom zoned out there was no reaching her. It was up to Katniss and I to provide. Katniss came across Gale in the forest one day and they have been hunting partners ever since. Gale is two years older than Katniss, making him my age. They were so close that most people thought that he was our brother. Prim was always teasing Katniss and I, but Katniss is terrified of having a relationship, and I just don't care, so long as he doesn't scare game away.

We tried to teach Prim to hunt too. That didn't end well. Prim would always want to save the animals. She had a knack for healing, just like our mother, so she and Mom supported the family by running a small apothecary shop while Katniss and I hunted. Despite our efforts, Katniss and I still have to use tesserae to feed the family. Tesserae is a years' supply of grain and oil for one person, you can do this for each member of your family as well, but for each tesserae you take, your name is entered once more into the reaping, and the entries are cumulative so at eighteen I will have over 20 slips of paper with Katsa Everdeen written on them.

The reaping, the day fate decides if you are going to fight to the death in an arena or watch a girl and boy you know from your district do it for you. And most likely lose. District 12 hasn't won in years. All of the Districts are forced to participate by sacrificing 2 of their children ages 12-18 to compete in the annual Hunger Games. They are thrown into an outdoor arena that can be anything from a blazing desert to a frozen wasteland. The arena varies by year and is controlled by Gamemakers whose job is to create a show of it for the Capitol, they can put mutts or natural disasters, or unnatural disasters to make the Games more fun for the audience to watch. There, the kids will either die from natural causes or by other "tributes". The last one alive wins. The winner the Games gets a life of ease back home, fame and fortune. And memories to last the rest of their lives.

In the beginning there was war. Slaughter, death everywhere. Friend turning on friend, buildings exploding out of nowhere, then out of the ashes rose Panem, a shining Capitol ringed by thirteen Districts each in charge of their own product. Four-fishing, Seven-lumber, Twelve-Coal. Then came the Dark Days, the Districts had rebelled against the Capitol. More war. Twelve of the Districts were defeated, the thirteenth obliterated. From the Treaty of Treason "In penance for their uprising, each district shall offer up a male and female between the ages of 12 and 18 at a public "Reaping." These Tributes shall be delivered to the custody of the Capitol. And then transferred to a public arena where they will Fight to the Death until a lone victor remains. Henceforth and forevermore this pageant shall be known as The Hunger Games." Perhaps it will end in war.

When I was eight years old, a distant cousin came to visit us from the other side of District 12. I hadn't liked him – his heavy perfume, the way he showed his wealth and superiority in everything. When he had started to pay me more attention I had grown wary. "Such pretty eyes you have" he had said to her "If you were to volunteer for the Hunger Games you would attract many sponsors, but you might be reaped anyway what with you mother and father so poor and living in the Seam." I had scowled at him and started to turn away before I heard the end of his sentence. Then, fast as lightning my hand had flown out and smashed him in the face. So hard and so fast that I'd pushed the bones of his nose into his brain.

Prim and my mother had screamed, Katniss and my father just stared at me in horror from across the room. When my mother the healer had lifted him from the pool of blood on the floor and he'd turned out to be dead the house had gone silent, backed away. Katniss' hand was at her shoulder, hungry for an arrow that wasn't there. Peacekeepers were there within minutes to escort me to my certain death. My family just standing there in shock as they took me away.


	2. The Person Who Was Your Last Hope

**Chapter 2**

Since I was still staring in bewilderment at my innocent looking hands wondering how things so small could inflict so much pain and damage, I didn't notice at first where they were taking me. By rights they could have shot me right there in my house. Instead I was taken to the Justice Building. I was held there for a few days wondering what they were going to do to me, and why I was still alive. It also gave me time to think.

If I was going to die, it wasn't going to have an impact on too many people. Like Katniss, I didn't have many friends back in District 12. We were more concerned about survival than making friends. A lot of people heard that I had killed my cousin. "Watch out for the blue-eyed green-eyed one" they would whisper when I passed by. My only friends were Gale and Raff. Raff was a cousin too, but he was bearable. He wanted like my mother and Prim to become a healer, so he was always over at our small place helping an asking questions and generally making a mess. But we tolerated him. When Gale, Katniss and I went into the woods sometimes he would ask us to bring back some special plant for him. Then he would come up with these strange concoctions that he would get us to try. At first they were just different types of harmless berries mixed together, then as he got older and understood more, he could make useful brews. Things to help with a cold, or a sore back, to help you fall asleep, but he always checked first that it was safe on himself first. For instance, he was once trying to make a remedy for headaches, but the next time I saw him, his once blond hair was turned blue. He stayed at our place until it was back to normal again, his merchant father hadn't wanted him to scare away the few customers they had. So only my Katniss, Prim, Raff, Gale, and my mother would be hurt by my death, and they would all recover with time. I would be a story to tell to gain sympathy. I could be told as a person from one of my mother's stories, all heroic and brave like them.

On the third day, I had a visitor. So I was taken to a room much richer than the one I had been held in. They made me wait for a few minutes on my own . I knew that there was no way to escape, the doors and windows were all blocked by Peacekeepers probably with orders to kill. Instead I focused on who my visitor was going to be. I doubt that Katniss or two-year old Prim would be allowed, my father never, but maybe my mother? Unless my execution was today and they were all coming. As soon as the door opens though, I'm almost certain that I will live through the day.

My visitor is President Snow.

"So I am told that you killed a man with your bare hands? Well that is pretty impressive for an eight year old. My name is President Snow, but you already knew that didn't you? And your name is Katsa, hard and short I like it, given to you by your mother I would assume since it is not a common name. Anyway, Katsa" I held my breath when he said my name, "I am here on important business. You killed that man, and the normal protocol is to execute you, and I am not above killing children but, you could be useful. Your mother has told you stories of the Gracelings, yes? Oh don't look so surprised of course I know where she comes from, but there is no way for her to get back that is all that matters. Well I am led to believe that you are Graced with killing. And for a man like me, that could be very, beneficial.

"So instead of killing you, I am going to get you to work for me, it works for both of us, you will train and live with the Peacekeepers for a few years, then you will do my work in the Districts, like a spy." He leaned closer, and I could smell roses and mysteriously, blood. "So what do you say? Live and work and train, or die today?" He smiled as I looked up at him and said

"When do I start?"


	3. Change Me

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"_I don't want them to change me" _

My new home was immediately moved to the District Peacekeepers Housing. It all moved so fast, the President left and an official looking woman came in and told me that she would escort me to my new quarters. My new "quarters" was in a low grey building with a chain link fence around the outside. I was taken around through the back doors, so as not to attract attention. That didn't mean that I saw nothing of what was going on. There were men sparring in one room, in another doing stretches or talking. By showing me in through the back door they were giving me a tour of the place, and I had guessed at the time that the president had no idea how valuable this would be to me later on if I needed to escape.

Every room we passed the people in them all stopped what they were doing and stared at me as I passed. Apparently a new female recruit of such a young age was not heard of, at all. As soon as I had passed, they started whispering, as though I couldn't hear them. Best to keep that to myself though, I was not about to fight my guard only to go confront soldiers for whispering about something new and strange that happened to be me. But I might learn some interesting things if they thought I couldn't hear them.

"You will call me Master Raymet. I will be in charge of your training." A tall blonde woman said. "We begin after supper, be there on time" she added before walking back the way she came. Apparently helping the new recruit was not a wanted position.

_Well then, she looks like a sour kid on Christmas morning. _I thought, thinking about how we celebrated Christmas in the Seam. Where work started later, so all of the snow that fell overnight was not immediately turned grey from thousands of feet grinding it into the ash first thing in the morning . Everything seemed more magical, people would save up all year, to be able to buy something nice for someone else, a ribbon, a blanket, and if you were really wealthy maybe even a chocolate. It was the only celebration other than the Hunger Games that the President allowed, besides hidden ones.

I loved the season, even if it was colder, so there were more lifeless figures left in alleyways or on doorsteps, to be collected later by the Peacekeepers. The season itself to me seemed grander, because of the stories my mother told me.

In my mother's stories, the winter season was a time of great celebration. People would travel from all over to see their family or friends that they had missed during the year. They would spend hours doing nothing because they could. And the food! They would feast on chicken, beef, lamb, pheasant, with different courses of just desserts. Every course would have its own Graceling performer to entertain while you ate. Then at night a man in a big red suit would fill your house with presents. Apparently the Capitol still celebrates Christmas this way: with obscene amounts of food, wine and entertainment. Getting the feeling that the Peacekeepers did not recognize holidays at all, I was pushed past another room full of people shouting.

My room was grander than I had hoped for. With red and gold walls, a bathing room, a sitting room, a bedroom, a dining room and a large room with weapons on all the walls. I was left to my own devices until an hour before I was to be sent to dinner, when a short, round woman came and let herself in.

"What are you doing here?" I asked her rather rudely.

"I believe that you are in need of a female servant, to help you with your time here. Men cannot teach you everything." She responded firmly.

"You do not need to put yourself through the social awkwardness of being my servant, I release you." I tried to tell her, I liked being alone.

"I want to" was all she would say on the subject, "Now, what are you going to wear that will make a good first impression?"

"_I don't want them to change me" It's too late to change my mind _


End file.
